On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c6.s2.19

v1.c6.s2.19

This interpretation of the story about king Gold-Flower differs from the translation of the passage given by Julien which does not seem to be correct. It reads—“Le roi montrait, dans ses lois, une rare pénétration. Il sut toucher les dragons et les atteler à son char. Quand il voulait se rendre invisible, il frappait leurs oreilles avec son fouet et disparaissait subitement. Depuis cette époque, jusqu'à ce jour, la ville ne possède point de puits, de sorte que les habitants vont prendre dans le lac l'eau dont ils ont besoin.” By a comparison of this with the original¹ we see that Julien did not notice that it was the secret influence of the king's wise and impartial government which moved the dragons to become his vehicles, and *Kan-lung-yü-shêng* cannot be made to mean "Il sut toucher les dragons et les atteler à son char." Then "se rendre invisible" is not right for *chung-mê* which means "to die"; the word *yin*, "hereupon" is omitted, and the words *yi-chi-yü-chin*, "down to the present" are divorced from their proper connection. This version also makes the author state that the inhabitants still "vont prendre" water and yet a few lines after we learn that the city was utterly uninhabited.